it will not slow down what i hope is swift passage for pntr for russia. if the president's proposal is made in good faith, our friends should be eager to vote for it. so i'm surprised the majority leader just declined the chance for them to support it with their votes. so i guess we're left to conclude that it couldn't even pass by a fair majority of votes and that they would rather take the country off the cliff than actually work out a good-faith agreement that reflects tough choices on both sides. to be fair to the secretary and to the president, we didn't just put together a bill that included his $2 trillion tax increase. we also added the almost $400 billion in new tax stimulus measures he wanted as well. this bill contains a continuation of the payroll tax holiday, a 10% credit on new wages that will go to businesses large and small, tanned included a fix -- and it included a fix to one of the many flawed provisions of obamacare and expansion of a tax credit for businesses no one uses. this proposal reflected exactly what was in the president's bud